Mistaken Identity as Somali Pirates have No Night Vision Devices

by OldSailor on October 8, 2009

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Somali Pirates have sophisticated weapons but have no night vision devices to identify ships at night. On October 07, Somali Pirates attacked French Navy’s fuel supply ship in darkness thinking the vessel as a merchant vessel. When the pirates realized that it was a mistaken identity, they immediately started fleeing.
Some interesting features of this mistaken identity are:

BCR (Batiment de Commandement et de Ravitaillement) Somme (A 631) is the flagship commanding French military forces, supporting the EU NAVFOR Operation Atalanta off Somalia.

Somali pirates in two skiffs tried to storm the vessel by firing with Kalashnikovs and started fleeing when they realized it to be of mistaken identity.

BCR Somme after an hour long chase, arrested five pirates without any injury and a skiff; by then the pirates had thrown their weapons overboard.